


don't gain a single thing

by stupidloud



Series: i wrote some season coda things because i have no impulse control [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Inspired by Fanart, Just because the big kids do it doesn't mean you should too dude, Keith's Great Fuck Up, M/M, Post-Season/Series 04, angry lance, fluff at the end, you already know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 21:20:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12374310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidloud/pseuds/stupidloud
Summary: The second Lance had Red parked in her hangar, he’s booking it to the control room because heknewhe didnotjust hear what he thought he heard. It’d taken a second to process, what with Lotor suddenly decidingthe enemy of my enemy is a good business opportunityand covering their asses. Shiro volunteered to go on the ship all the leaders where communing in to talk with Prince Dick himself.Which left everybody else docking the castle.Which left Keith at the mercy of one very, very pissed off Cuban.✦set after the season four finale





	don't gain a single thing

**Author's Note:**

> if i had the strength to, i wouldve chucked my laptop while keith was taking the nosedive into the bomb. god. i didnt think i was gonna write anything for s4, but here we are because of gorgeous art by amazing artists. also could be connected to [shake what's left of me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12339159) if you squint, but it ain't necessary to read it for this one. i wanted to post something before this one but that didn't happen soooooo. here y'go.
> 
> Amazing Art: [mangomomm](http://mangomomm.tumblr.com/post/166403193886/so-uh-voltron-season-4-lads) on tumblr  
> Title from: King by Lauren Aquilina

The second Lance had Red parked in her hangar, he’s booking it to the control room because he _knew_ he did _not_ just hear what he thought he'd heard _._ It’d taken a second to process, what with Lotor suddenly deciding _the enemy of my enemy is a good business opportunity_ and covering their asses. Shiro volunteered to go on the ship all the leaders where communing in to talk with Prince Dick himself.

Which left everybody else docking the castle.

Which left Keith at the mercy of one very, _very_ pissed off Cuban.

He almost barreled into Hunk in the hallway, his vision was so red. Lance took both Hunk’s arms, shaking him once, “Bud, tell me you didn’t hear Matt. Tell me Keith didn’t just try to kamikaze himself into a goddamn _supernova_.”

Hunk’s expression was confused until it wasn’t, until it was almost as angry as Lance’s. Almost. No one could be as angry as Lance right at this moment. The feeling was bubbling over him, so physically _hot_ he felt if you cracked on egg on his forehead, it would cook.

“I thought the comms were malfunctioning or something. Did he actually—“

“Oh, he did.” Lance let go and continued his march, muttering under his breath, “ _Lo voy a matar. Lo voy a_ freakin’ _matar._ ”

Keith was gonna wish he’d driven into the bomb by the time Lance was done with him. He was gonna wish he never even left them in the fir—

 _His decision. And you signed off on it._ Yeah, no, Lance couldn’t chew him out for that, he was just going to have to pour that excess into his screaming session right now. Was that fair?

Considering the circumstances, abso-fucking-lutely.

It took no time for Lance to spot him in the crowd of people. Rebels mixed with Marmorans, and it should’ve been hard, but Lance had an excellent radar. One of the Marmorans, his hood flipped up, was a whole person shorter than all the others. He stood off, arms crossed.  _Yahtzee._

The other paladins were probably on their way, so Lance acted fast. He strode over, quick enough that nobody stopped him and Keith barely noticed as he linked their arms together. He yanked him over, shoving him into the nearest hangar elevator. Keith was reaching for his knife before he was aware of who it was and Lance took a step back, “I strongly suggest you don’t stab me right now. I’m pissed as it is.”

The doors shut.

The lights came on red, and Lance saw he had the mask on. Somehow, it made him even angrier.

Keith kind of sagged, out of battle mode. “Lance.”

And _yeah_ , maybe it felt a little good to hear his name from him for the first time in weeks, face to face (or mask, whatever). But it didn't deter him.

His voice was dangerously quiet, just to keep it from shaking, “What the hell was that?”

His pulse was beating loud, loud in his ears and his blood was gasoline, so get _fucked_ , Keith, we have a new hothead in town. Lance had gotten mad after Voltron before, but since he started piloting Red it felt magnified. Where Blue would calm him down, Red stoked him on.

Keith raised his defenses again, not as tense, but prepared, “Lance—“

“You—You—“ He threw his hands up, circling around before shoving at Keith’s shoulders, which he hadn't been planning on doing because he was  _not_ a violent person, but, “You _idiot_. You were gonna fucking _kill yourself_ —“

“It was all I could do, Lance,” there we go, there’s Red. He drew up his height, “It was me or the coalition, the Blade, Voltron. I had to buy you time—“

Lance barked a laugh, “God, and you didn’t take a second to think maybe you should _tell us_ what was going on in that pretty little head of yours?” He ripped a hand through his hair. “Y-You didn’t think your freaking brother wanted to hear you say goodbye?”

_You didn’t think I did? You didn’t think Pidge would’ve been destroyed, Hunk—_

"We're a team. We're a  _team_ , man," his voice was wavering, "you don't get to go off and do shit like this. You don't get to be have a goddamn hero complex! _You're_ our Red Paladin. There's no Voltron without you."

Keith took a breath, all echoey from the modulator. Lance was staring him down and he didn’t even know if he was looking at the right spot. The elevator stopped at the zip line and Lance pressed the button for it to continue all the way.

They were as far away from each other as possible, but the space was small, small and Lance could see it.

The tremor of Keith’s hands, clenched at his sides. His thumbs were working overtime smoothing over the sides of his index fingers.

“Take off your mask,” Lance said.

“Lance.”

“I can’t—“ He gulped down the feeling rising in his throat, “I need to look at you. Take off your mask. Please."

Keith ducked his head. One of his shaking hands twitched and it phased away. His hair spilled messy around his face and the hood shadowed over everything but Lance could still see he was pale, pale and stricken.

His eyes were red. Overflowing.

Lance felt himself go cold, all the heat rising off like boiling water against ice. _Oh, baby…_ he thought, bit his bottom lip to keep from actually saying it, settling on, “You idiot.”

Keith worked his jaw.

“You—“ He took the three steps forward, held Keith’s face in his hands. He flicked off the hood and Keith looked up. Red-rimmed and bright. Lance wanted to—He didn’t know. He didn’t even know what he wanted to do because Keith was _here_. He could’ve—Lance could’ve—

He shut his eyes tight, pressed their foreheads together briefly. “I could've lost you…” He wrapped his arms around Keith’s neck, burying his face in the crook of his neck, “I could've lost you, you _idiot."_

Keith’s shaking hands settled on his shoulder blades.

The feeling finally surged upward, all in one wave Lance couldn’t control when Keith whimpered, pulled him closer. He felt a tear escape and Keith shaking, sobbing.

“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“God, don't be. Don't you dare. Why would you do it?” He pulled back to look at him, curling one hand over his cheek, “If you— We care about you. We love you, Keith, I- I love you. If you know that, why would you—“

“I didn’t.” He held Lance’s wrist, “I left you. I left all of you, I didn’t think—“

“That was your decision. We wanted you with us, but we respected it. It didn’t give you the excuse to self destruct.” He hiccuped, which really took the edge off, but he couldn’t fucking help it, “I missed you so much, bud.”

Keith nodded, “I did too.”

They stood like that until the doors opened.

Red’s presence curled around them, like a tap on his shoulder. Keith’s eyes widened and Lance could guess maybe it was more than that for him. She was all around.

**Idiot _._ **

Lance wiped at his face, turning, “That’s what I said.” It was hard to go back to being angry, so he settled for tearfully mad.

Keith let go of his wrist. Lance mourned the loss, but crossed his arms, walking fully into the hangar. He jerked his head at Keith, “You don’t have to continue. I already covered it.”

“I won’t do it again,” Keith said. Lance could hear him relaxing with Red here because despite it all, she was his lion too.

**No, I expect you to. Don’t promise things you know aren’t true.**

Keith scowled, at odds with the tear tracks drying on his cheek and Lance's mouth twitched. _There he was._ He didn't smile like he wanted to, pressing his lips together and sitting down on Red's paw. She made a noise in Lance's chest like a rumble. Keith hesitated.

**Sit down.**

He did, leaving a few inches of space between them. Lance waited a beat before putting his arm around his waist and pulling him so they were together. Keith made a surprised noise and Lance rested his head on his shoulder, muttering, "I'm still pissed." Swallowing was kind of hard, so he had to pause before finishing, "But I missed you."

Keith tentatively settled an arm around his shoulders, scrubbing away the tears before hugging around his neck. 

"I wasn't thinking." He sounded more even again. His breath stirred Lance's hair.

Lance turned so he fit better into Keith's neck, which was, not gonna lie, kind of gross since it was all sweat; but it was familiar, it was Keith. And he couldn't bring himself to care.

"Obviously."

Keith huffed, "That's not what I meant."

"That's what I heard." He pulled away to look at him, "And it's pretty right if you ask me."

Red growled,  **I agree.**

Lance was able to grin now, pointing up with a triumphant finger, "See? See?"

Keith rolled his eyes, "She hasn't stopped me from making bad decisions before."

"Still has a point," he used the same finger to poke Keith's side. "And your other bad decisions didn't include nose diving into a bomb, genius."

  **Yo** **u didn't need me for that. That much is apparent.**

"I was—" Keith started before going quiet. Bowed his head. 

Lance kissed his cheek, holding the side of his head, "We love you. We really do, baby."

Keith tilted his face so their noses bumped and nodded, "I got it."

"Don't forget it, then. We're a team. We're a family." Lance pressed their lips together, "I love you. I love you."

Keith's shaking hands cradled his face and Lance held them there.  _I love you._

They kiss and kiss until the team finds them and they don't even scream, at least not angrily, hugging Keith from every side.  _I love you_.

And they get mad after. For sure. Breakfast is chaos the next day, and not just because Lotor joined them, for some fucking reason. 

But that night Keith is curled into his chest, and all of him's shaking and he's sobbing into Lance's shirt because  _I almost died, I almost died_ , and Lance feels like he's breaking apart all over again, pulling him close enough so they're one heartbeat, one set of lungs.It's fucked. Seriously, truly, really fucked.

Lance doesn't say that though.

He kisses Keith's hair.  _You're here now, you're here, and we need you with us. We love you, I love you._

**Author's Note:**

> dm me a story on my [tumblr](http://mcclainnkogane.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Comments and Kudos are Appreciated! <3


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